


Boats & Woes

by peetazeus



Category: Hunger Games Series - All Media Types, Hunger Games Trilogy - Suzanne Collins, The Hunger Games (Movies)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, And all that jazz, Best Friend Everlark, F/M, Fluff, Fluffy Everlark, Friends to Lovers, High School, Jealousy, Nature, Sexual References, Truth or Dare, everlark, kind of
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-11-16
Updated: 2016-11-16
Packaged: 2018-08-31 07:17:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,456
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8569339
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/peetazeus/pseuds/peetazeus
Summary: After getting stuck in the middle of a lake on a boat with a broken engine, Katniss and Peeta get a little too real with each other.





	

**Author's Note:**

> A/N: hey guys! This is my third fic and I hope you enjoy! All rights go to the wonderful Suzanne Collins for the (incredible) quotes I've borrowed and the general world and characters of the Hunger Games and anything else that isn't mine. I've been working on this one for a while and really wanted to get out there, and I'd love to hear your opinions and comments and whatever feedback! Thank you so much for reading!

“I hate you.”

 

“No, you love me. That’s why you came out here with me.” 

 

Their friend group had come down to stay in a cabin in the woods for a week to celebrate graduating high school. The cabin was Madge’s parents, and her dad being the Mayor of their hometown, Panem, it was pretty big.

 

The cabin on the outside looked had an elderly look to it. It’s what Katniss liked about it. It was large, oak logs covering its frame with rusty old windows with wooden shutters. But on the inside, it was completely the opposite. Madge described it as one of her mother’s projects to keep her entertained, in which she completely modernised the place on the inside. Marble countertops, glass tables, tiled floors and even a jacuzzi on their decking. 

 

They could be roasting marshmallows on the glass fireplace, relaxing in the jacuzzi, watching Netflix on the various flat screen tv’s in every one of their rooms on their king sized beds.

 

Yet, Peeta wanted to go out on a tiny wooden boat to go fishing in the middle of a mossy, pungent lake. With one and a half fishing rods.

 

Katniss really needed to learn to say no to Peeta.

 

They’d ditched the fishing idea when Peeta realized he’d forgot the bait.

 

And when Katniss insisted they go back to shore, after trying it a few times, the motor on their boat was dead. Peeta kept pulling it, but every single time it let out its last puff of breath. It was completely dead on his tenth try.

 

Katniss looked around, her face deflating even more (if that was remotely possible) as he called every one of their friends on his phone a few times. She’d left hers back in the cabin. 

 

“None of them are answering, and there’s no way we’d be able to row ourselves back. The boat’s too heavy,” He mustered, looking between the lakeshore and the boat a few times. 

 

“So what the hell do we do until one of them decides to pick up?”

 

Peeta’s lying back now, reclining with his head against the headboard at his end of the boat.   
“How about a little game of Truth or Dare?”

 

Katniss sits up, with a wide smile and feigned excitement. “Oh yes! That sounds like so much fun. Okay, I dare you to jump off the boat and swim to shore to get help. And if you drown on the way, it’s okay!” 

 

Peeta’s mouth turns into a frown, “I don’t appreciate your sarcasm, Everdeen.”

 

“I don’t appreciate you getting us stuck on a broken boat in the middle of a lake, Mellark.” 

 

There’s a pause before Peeta’s chuckling, “Okay, okay. How about…..Truth or truth?”

 

Katniss raised an eyebrow, her hands on the edge of the boat as it rocked slightly. “We pretty much know everything about each other.”

 

Peeta shrugged, looking slightly deflated as he put his feet up on the middle board. “You’re not giving me a lot to work with, Everdeen. How about…..okay. Real or not real? We say something that we think is real, and the other says if it is or isn’t. And no lying. I’ll know anyway, you’re an awful liar.” 

 

All Katniss could do was stick out her tongue, because he was right. If there was one thing she couldn't do, it was lying. Peeta always said she spoke with her facial expressions more than with words, so she was screwed when it came to lying because she’d already given it away and she nearly always had a scowl on her face. Finnick even started numbering them. 

 

“Fine,” Katniss mustered, her bottom lip puffing out slightly. “You go first.”

 

Peeta clapped his hands together, rubbing them together to get them warm considering it wasn’t cold but it wasn’t exactly warm, either. It was mild but the sky was full of clouds, a swarm of grey and white. 

 

“Okay, I’ll start with an easy one. I’m your favourite person in the world. Real or not real?” 

 

Katniss rolled her eyes and smirked, “Not real.” 

 

Peeta feigned shock and scoffed, giving her the finger. “Only rule is to be honest, Katpiss. Your turn.”

 

Katniss scowled at the nickname, an invention of Peeta’s who was an expert at getting to her and what buttons to push and by his smirk he knew exactly he had. She figured she had no choice but to participate in Peeta’s game. It’s not like she had much to do, and it was quite cute when Peeta got excited. 

 

Wait.

 

No.

 

Katniss didn’t use the word cute. Much less associating it with Peeta.

 

“Okay. Glimmer gave head to you in the guy's locker rooms and Haymitch walked in on you. Real or not real?” 

 

Even to her, he never admitted if it was true or not and she might as well use her opportunity while she’s got the chance. 

 

The rumour circulated around after eyewitnesses had spotted the occasional hook ups in the locker room after their football’s big win at the end of the season, winning them the cup. She picked up on the truth of it from Peeta not being able to look at their English teacher, Haymitch Abernathy, for about month afterwards. Katniss and Peeta were good friends with their different teacher throughout high school, and he definitely made some jabs at Peeta after the incident. 

 

Peeta had been the star quarterback on the team who made the winning play in the last twenty seconds when they’d been in a draw, winning the championship. 

 

It was the only time she’d ever seen Johanna cry, who still to this day would never admit to it. Katniss didn’t get sports generally or the whole phenomena around them, but she couldn’t deny the burst of pride and how proud she had felt when Peeta made the play and their school won.

 

Popularity and admiration wasn’t all he got from football, he also got a free ride with a football scholarship straight to college. 

 

Peeta’s eyes widened and he wouldn’t meet her eyes, instead his fingernails attempting to scrape the remaining of the blue chipped paint off the boat. It just made Katniss’ smirk grow wider, “Real.” He murmured, his cheeks tinting red. 

 

She was laughing, but it didn’t make her feel good. The thought of Peeta with anyone made this sick feeling twist in her lower abdomen. Prim says it’s her love butterflies screaming with pitchforks to get her to come to sense. Katniss insisted it was the dodgy burrito Finnick dared her to eat at lunch. And that that was a pretty dark image for a 14 year old.

 

Her little sister Prim knew a lot more about Katniss’ feelings than Katniss did. 

 

Katniss really didn’t like that. 

 

Especially when it came to her feelings for Peeta. 

 

Peeta cleared his throat, narrowing his eyes slightly as he straightened his broad shoulders. “So that’s how we’re going to play, eh?” He mustered, and then a curved smile formed on his lips. “You hooked up with Cato last year during that game of 7 minutes of Heaven. Real or not real?”

 

Katniss’ eyes widened and before she could even form a response, he answered for her. Not necessarily happily. “Real. He had your lipstick on his shirt collar and your hair was messy.”

 

She had forcibly denied they did anything after being stuck in Darius’ tight closet. It hadn’t even been Cato who had initiated anything, he had gotten the message clear she didn’t want to do anything. But after watching Peeta and Glimmer disappear off into one of the bedrooms she needed some type of attention. Distraction. 

 

Cato wasn’t even that bad of a kisser. He had gotten better after the second and third time. He was a good hook up when she needed one and he didn’t expect anything out of it. He was just as allergic to any time of commitment or affection as she was. 

 

Not like Peeta. 

 

That was the main problem Katniss encountered with any other boys. 

 

None of them were Peeta. 

 

“Real,” She answered even though he had and a scowl appeared on her lips, her nostrils flaring slightly. “You broke my bow that summer by the lake when we were 15. Real or not real?”

 

They had all gone down to the local lake just outside Panem about two summers ago for a camping trip, and Gale her family friend, had accompanied them. They both brought their bows to go hunting in the woods, hunting was something they’d done all their lives. But, the next morning, when they had gotten up at 6am to go hunting, her bow lay there broken in half. It had been old, and was in need of repairing, but Katniss was absolutely fuming. 

 

Finnick immediately took the blame but Katniss knew deep down that he didn’t do it. She just knew. Finnick was a good liar but he was also an idiot. With Peeta barely being able to look at her for the next week and his very expensive Christmas present to her of a brand new bow that followed that Christmas, she connected the dots. She just never asked.

 

Peeta was squirming, unclenching and clenching his hands into fists and he was visibly sweating. He had a guilty expression all over his face and he ran a hand through his wavy blonde hair, that never looked greasy even after a long football practice. “Real,” He spoke quietly, his voice raspy. “I’m sorry. I wanted to tell you but Finnick insisted, and-I was scared you’d hate me.”

 

“I could never hate you.” The words flew out of her mouth, the inside of her mouth dry accompanied with a sour taste, as if it was an automatic response. Because it was true. 

 

She had tried, when they had their small fights or when it all just became too much. Katniss had a great talent for shutting people out, but Peeta was already way too far in. 

 

She couldn’t push him away even if she tried. 

 

There was a brief silence, for a minute or so, before Peeta cleared his throat and went to take his turn. His body language hadn’t changed and if anything, he looked more tense and uncertain. “You stopped singing. You stopped….because of your father. Real or not real?”

 

The network of muscles in her body joined together in one big tense feeling, and she was alert to everything surrounding her. She refused to talk about it, him, since she was 12 when it had happened. Not to her mother, who barely spoke anyway, not to Prim and especially not to anyone else. Not even Peeta. 

 

It was an unspoken rule with Katniss. No one asked why because they knew, and if they didn’t know her scowl and blank expression made them not ask. 

 

He was right. Her father died in a big mining accident, along with Gale’s father, when she was 11 years old. Something changed in Katniss then, in her mother and Prim was too young to understand what was going on. Prim was the hope that kept Katniss going, even when her mother threw herself into work and her dulling depression. Her dad and her always used to sing. In the car, out hunting, at home, at the holidays-always. He’s where Katniss inherited her soft voice from. She used to sing in school plays, assemblies and the choir. 

 

After that day, when she lowered her father in a box into the ground forever, she didn’t sing. She didn’t see the point in it anymore. Not when her friends did karaoke and were laughing, not when Prim couldn’t sleep or cried, not when a song came on the radio. 

 

She couldn’t. The pain never subsided and singing wouldn’t help it go away. It just made it more evident. 

 

She looked up at him and she was the one curling her fingers into a fist, that were visibly shaking. It’s not like she could jump in and swim away, and she was tired of hiding. “Real,” She spoke, looking up to see he was still watching her intently. It was her turn now and she knew exactly what she was going to ask.

 

“Your bruises weren’t from football. They were from your mother. Real or not real?”

 

Peeta’s the quiet one now, probably going through everything Katniss had just felt. His answer was no secret to Katniss and the others, maybe not Madge or Thom, but Finnick, Annie and Johanna had put the pieces together too. 

 

Football didn’t give you bruises in the shapes of frying pans or rolling pins. Football bruises didn’t make him go to Katniss’ house in the middle of the night for unplanned sleepovers with puffy eyes and some blood smeared into his t-shirt. He wouldn’t talk and she wouldn’t ask him to, she would just hold him. Sometimes he cried, sometimes he didn’t. 

 

In this game, they’d both crossed the two lines they hadn’t even crossed themselves. Peeta confirms this, with a small nod and one of his hands is in the water, creating ripples in the lake water. They’re in the middle of the lake, a small circle that is clear of the moss and leaves. “Real.”

 

It’s silent again, just the bristle of the trees and the breeze making noise. Katniss can’t stand it. They’ve both just opened up their furthest walls that they didn’t talk about with anyone. Katniss wouldn’t even talk about it to herself in her head and she was sure Peeta didn’t even acknowledge his problem. 

 

There’s so many things she wants to say. That his mother's a disgusting woman, that he doesn’t deserve it, that Katniss would gladly go over there with her bow and teach his mother a lesson. That Peeta could live with Katniss and be safe. That Katniss will stand up for him like his father won't. She desperately tries to protect him from it, and she has before, but Peeta desperately tries to shield it from her and their friends. 

 

But he has his father and his brothers and the bakery, and he’s made it clear when she intervenes it’s his life. He always says the same thing. “Stay out of it, Katniss.”

 

She swiftly changes the subject, playing with her fingers and staring at the bottom of the boat. It’s brown and dirty, a muddy footprint etched onto it. Her eyes fixed onto a pair of four initials on the curved edge of the floor connecting to the side of the boat, she couldn’t make them out clearly but they definitely had been carved in by someone.

 

It’s a nice thought. That someone had been out here on this boat, happy. She breaks the silence, eyes breaking away from the white dusty initials.

 

“I heard them all once. Some of the football team and cheerleaders. Glimmer. Talking about how... someone as nice as you could be friends with someone as unpleasant as me.” Katniss murmurs, but it’s loud enough for Peeta to hear and lift his head and look at her. She knows they’re right. She could live a thousand lifetimes and never deserve him. 

 

“Yeah, well, they don’t know you like I do. They’re wrong. They’re the ones who are missing out. You….you’re incredible, Katniss. You fascinate people. You...you don’t understand the effect you have.” 

 

His words make something inside her stir, that incorrigible fluttery feeling in the pit of her stomach alive. She opens her mouth to say something but she doesn’t know what to say, she’s never been good with words. Peeta always has been. When they did projects he always offered to do the talking, he made announcements and spoke in assemblies in school and made all the speeches as captain of the football team. 

 

The sun blinds her momentarily as it breaks out from the clouds, its strong rays lighting up the lake and creating their reflections in the water. They look good together. They look happy. 

 

“Katniss,” Peeta continues, reaching over to take her hand resting in her lap and she can feel the sweat and warmth radiating from his palm. She isn’t affectionate, Peeta is, but she doesn’t pull back her hand like she usually would. 

 

He’s nervous. 

 

She’s curious.

 

“I didn’t just want to come out here with you to go for a boat ride. I….I wanted to tell you. Something. Finnick thought the boat ride was a good idea.” He said weakly, and she’s staring at him intently but she hasn’t pulled back her hand. 

 

“Finnick’s an idiot,” Katniss replies and it earns her a half chuckle but Peeta still looks determined and he continues. 

 

“We’ve been best friends since we were 11 years old. I have never trusted anyone more in my life. You’re the first person I talk to when I wake up and when I go to sleep. You’re my person. I love everything about you, especially the stubbornness and the refusal to admit your love for my cheese buns even when you steal them out of my locker,” He pauses to chuckle nervously. 

 

“We’re both going to Capitol University together in the Fall and basically what I’m trying to say is, I want us to go...together. I want to give us a shot. Because I really believe it’s the best shot we’ll ever take.” He outwardly cringes at his own line, his face wrinkling slightly. “Practiced that last one a few times in the mirror.”

 

She still hasn’t said anything and she feels like she’s shell shocked, afraid to move a muscle so she just continues to stare at him. 

 

“I...I know it’s not my turn, but I’m going to go anyway,” He takes a deep breath for courage and his blue eyes bore into her grey ones, and she doesn’t cower away. “You love me. Real or not real? Because I do. I really love you.”

 

Her hand is visibly shaking in his and she’s feeling so overwhelmed. She’s looking around at anything but him now, taking in the lake and the trees and the nature around them. There’s leaves floating in the air and landing lightly on the lake’s surface, the wind’s soft song in their ears. It makes her think of the meadow by her house. Where her and Peeta have been so many times, with and without their friends or Prim, and it’s so full of happy memories. 

 

She knows the answer. Of course she does.

 

She’s known the answer since Peeta gave her half of his lunch when she forgot hers when they were six, since Peeta held her hand through her father’s funeral and didn’t say anything but was just there for her, since Peeta painted her a picture of the meadow for her 16th birthday, since Peeta asked her to prom and made her laugh and dance so much until everything hurt, since he held her hair back and stayed up with her after she drank Johanna’s tequila and threw most of it up last New Year's Eve. 

 

But it’s not just the moments. It’s his soft smile that makes everything better, his warm eyes, soft skin, his broad shoulders and muscular build. It’s everything about him that makes her love him. His kindness, bravery, talent and love and passion for everything he does. His ability to forgive. Just him. 

 

With every ounce of courage in her body, she manages to speak and with a slight nod of her head, she speaks. “R-Real. Of course. Real.” 

 

She’s not sure if he’s ever smiled this widely before and of course, it’s contagious and she’s quickly got one matching his. He’s leaning towards her now, one of his hands moving up to brush a strand of her dark hair out of her eyes. Her heart’s hammering in her chest and there’s a build up inside of her because this is it. 

 

“Can I kiss you?” It’s so Peeta to ask her that, a gentleman in his true form and she’s about to grab his shirt and slam his lips against hers but his phone rings, Finnick’s ringtone ‘Baby Got Back’ blaring in the air of the quiet lake, their friends finally calling them back. 

 

They both chuckle and just as Peeta’s other hand reaches to answer it, she puts her hand over hers. It’s her turn now. “Can we stay out here for a while?” She asks quietly, but she’s looking at him with a soft smile and a glint in her eye. 

 

“Yeah,” He answers, forgetting about the phone entirely and looking at her as if it’s the best idea she’s ever had.

 

And it is, because she kisses him ten seconds later, and it’s pretty damn perfect.


End file.
